Broadcast: News items

Siobhan O'Reilly, Director of HR

On 23 June, Siobhan O'Reilly, Director of HR, sent a message to all staff. You can read the message below:

Dear colleague,

Over the past six months the HR Division has undergone significant transformation, developing a refreshed People Strategy and new structure which will support us to meet the changing needs of the University. Whilst this has been challenging at times, the changes will help HR support the delivery of our Sussex 2025 vision. 

We will be sharing more details about our People Strategy in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, I have some personal news to share with you. For personal reasons and linked to recent ill-health, I have decided to resign from my post as Director of HR.

I have really enjoyed my time at Sussex, working with some fabulous people and getting to live in this amazing part of the country, but I will be leaving at the end of September 2022.

The fantastic work of the HR Division will continue, and we will be searching for an interim director and then a permanent director over the next few months. In the meantime, I am delighted to introduce you to the newly formed leadership team who will play a key role in helping achieve our strategic aims.

Building our HR leadership team

Our team structure has been reshaped, with the focus on strategic leadership and on culture, equality and inclusion (CEI). By broadening our team in these areas, we can drive key projects forward.

I am very happy to welcome our leadership team to their new roles. They bring a breadth and depth of expertise from higher education and more widely across other sectors and industries which will support our work here at Sussex. Find out more about each of them below:

Melanie Bywell – Deputy Director of HR

Melanie joined Sussex at the end of April 2022, having recently led the HR function at Freesat, a joint venture between BBC and ITV. Originally from South Africa, Melanie has lived in England since 1998, with a six-year stint in New Zealand. Melanie has worked as a senior HR professional in a variety of sectors and industries including insurance, manufacturing, management consulting, publishing, and not-for-profit. Having volunteered for the education sector for many years, Melanie is excited about working in higher education. Her aim is to provide outstanding service to University staff who will ultimately enable an optimal student experience.  

Cathy McDonnell – Assistant Director OD, Culture and Wellbeing

Cathy is currently Head of People & Organisational Development for West Sussex Fire & Rescue, having held a number of senior roles in further and higher education and the third sector. With experience in education transformation projects, teacher training and development, whole organisation learning and development (including leadership and cultural change), Cathy has also worked on project and programme management, business development and process refinement and modernisation. Cathy will join the team in early July 2022.

Isobel Pearce – Assistant Director Culture, Equality and Inclusion

Isobel has worked in HR for over 25 years, most recently as HR Director for the Institute of Development Studies on campus at Sussex for the last 18 years. Originally from Cornwall, Isobel moved to Brighton in 2001. A fellow of the CIPD, Isobel has a master’s degree in Human Resource Management and a postgraduate certificate in the Psychology of Organisational Development and Change. Isobel has worked in the education, public and charity sectors in HR roles and has, in recent years, focused on equality, diversity and inclusion. Isobel will join the team at the end of July 2022. 

Matthew Naish – Assistant Director Retention and Reward

Matt was promoted from his role as Reward Manager in March 2022, having been in the role for 2.5 years. Matt has worked in HR for 20 years and prior to joining the University, worked for Brighton and Hove City Council, starting as Recruitment Assistant and leaving as their Reward Manager. During that time, he also worked in numerous other HR functions including business services, payroll and systems. Matt’s new remit covers pensions, payroll and reward.

Peter Harrington, interim Deputy Director of HR and Jo Lawton, interim Assistant Director CEI will continue to support in the coming months as our new team become familiar with their roles. I hope you will join me in welcoming our new joiners to our community here at Sussex.

Thank you for your ongoing patience and support as we continue to transform our HR Division, and I look forward to updating you further with details of our refreshed People Strategy shortly.

With best wishes,

Siobhan O’Reilly
Director of HR